Whit film

spicymikey · Apr 17, 2023

Can anyone help me identify this condition? It started yesterday with a small patch in the same area and it is certainly gotten worse as of this morning.

I have a mature reef aquarium that I've always used a 30-day quarantine method when introducing new fish. I've never had an outbreak of any fish illness until now.

There are no new fish that have been added and the only thing I could say that is different over the last week is that I used chemiclean for the first time ever to try and get rid of a little cyanobacteria. Might be a coincidence but that is literally the only thing that has changed

Dburr1014 · Apr 17, 2023

Looks like ich.
@Jay Hemdal

Jay Hemdal · Apr 17, 2023

spicymikey said:
Can anyone help me identify this condition? It started yesterday with a small patch in the same area and it is certainly gotten worse as of this morning.

I have a mature reef aquarium that I've always used a 30-day quarantine method when introducing new fish. I've never had an outbreak of any fish illness until now.

There are no new fish that have been added and the only thing I could say that is different over the last week is that I used chemiclean for the first time ever to try and get rid of a little cyanobacteria. Might be a coincidence but that is literally the only thing that has changed

I've heard a few reports regarding chemiclean and certain fishes (including wrasses), but the active ingredient for that is erythromycin, and as long as there isn't an ammonia spike, that should be the issue.

With this fish, I see two possible problems: the large white area on the back, but also the four or five white spots around the head (that could be ich). The large area is probably a scrape, but it does look like it has gotten infected.

I don't imagine there is ANY way for you to catch this fish and move it to a treatment tank? Unless you can do that, I don't see any way for you to treat this, sorry.

Jay

spicymikey · Apr 17, 2023

Jay Hemdal said:
I've heard a few reports regarding chemiclean and certain fishes (including wrasses), but the active ingredient for that is erythromycin, and as long as there isn't an ammonia spike, that should be the issue.

With this fish, I see two possible problems: the large white area on the back, but also the four or five white spots around the head (that could be ich). The large area is probably a scrape, but it does look like it has gotten infected.

I don't imagine there is ANY way for you to catch this fish and move it to a treatment tank? Unless you can do that, I don't see any way for you to treat this, sorry.

Jay

Thanks for your insight. Yeah there's no way to catch him it's a 400 gallon reef aquarium and he is still very active. Those white spots near his head certainly do look suspicious and appear to be parasitic but they came after the white blotch on his back. So he might just be fighting some kind of external infection due to a scrape which is reducing his immune system to become prone to parasites. It's only my guess as well.

The good news is the tank is under stocked and I run it with a UV sterilizer. So hopefully he can recover from this external infection, whatever it is, and then he will just fight off the parasite. I was just really curious because of the coincidence with the chemiclean, erythromycinInYou would think that might be helpful by adding an antibiotic to the water so maybe it is just a total coincidence as well

vetteguy53081 · Apr 17, 2023

At one point appears to be ich and other as viral nodules. Question is, if these are on the shin or under the skin. The others as I too see it appear to be injury from scrape or scratching. If scratching, may suggest other issue going on with fish trying to dislodge irritant.
Fish trap is your best bet if unable to catch it. If youre lucky, some LFS have loaner fish traps for customers. Same applies to some fish clubs.

exnisstech · Apr 17, 2023

Can't really help with ID but I have ran chemiclean in 2 tanks over the last few months. One has a 6 line and the other a yellow banded possum wrasse and there were no negative effects to either wrasse so maybe coincidence in your case?

spicymikey · Apr 17, 2023

exnisstech said:
Can't really help with ID but I have ran chemiclean in 2 tanks over the last few months. One has a 6 line and the other a yellow banded possum wrasse and there were no negative effects to either wrasse so maybe coincidence in your case?

Thats my guess also

spicymikey · Apr 17, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
At one point appears to be ich and other as viral nodules. Question is, if these are on the shin or under the skin. The others as I too see it appear to be injury from scrape or scratching. If scratching, may suggest other issue going on with fish trying to dislodge irritant.
Fish trap is your best bet if unable to catch it. If youre lucky, some LFS have loaner fish traps for customers. Same applies to some fish clubs.

True. Which came first? Chicken/egg question. Strange thing is everyone else seems fine. Never ever saw any signs of parasitic infections in any of these fish until now. This particular aquarium has been running for 2 years. It would be literally impossible to catch this pink striped wrasse. Like most wrasses he lives among the caves and corals and lives off the live rock. He does not come out for any feedings to the tank. I do have a trap but it wouldn't work in this case and I wouldn't risk trying to net him. Too many corals in the tank.

Thanks for the input. I will post an update on how this resolves itself.

spicymikey · Apr 21, 2023

Update: The Pink striped wrasse disappeared the next night. Haven't seen him since so definitely died. None of the other fish got sick, so it was some isolated incident with just him. It wasn't Ich. Maybe he got some internal infection, and we were just seeing his slime coat breaking down. Sometimes things have no obvious explanation I suppose